Saturday, January 10, 2015

I'm Ranting

I shared my heart the other day about blogging. 
There are rules - so many rules. 
I hope I'm not breaking them by this post but if I am so be it. 
I check my stats on Blogger.
I check Pinterest to see what is being pinned.
A quick check and I knew what was pinned on any given day.
I haven't "blown up" Pinterest but it fed me some traffic. 
More traffic before it became taken over by the magazines and HGTV.com but I came to terms with that until last night.
Last night I went to Pinterest and clicked on a recent 
re-pin.
Previously, there was a small box that said see what else is being pinned by "Let's Add Sprinkles" or katietreasures.blogspot.com  
I could check that box and see what was popular or not. That box is gone and it is no where on the site. 
This has two ramifications for my blog and for other little bloggers.
One - I can no longer easily check the most recent pins and therefore I've lost a way of measuring quality, traffic, etc. 
Two - Pinterest is no longer feeding anybody to other pins and therefore to other pages on my blog. 

This annoys me. 
Do you know why?
Pinterest was hard enough. You have to have a least a gillion followers to go viral on Pinterest.
You have to spend hours a day on Pinterest looking for new content. 
Yes, I said new! (It's the same pictures day after day.)
You have to have the best picture, formatted a certain way to go viral. 
The one little thing left that was working for me is gone. 
Kudos to the big sites and the magazines they have conquered another social media outlet!
 I have ranted. Thank you. 
If it weren't "politically incorrect" I'd rant about a radical faction of a peaceful religion blowing people up!
Because I care about that too. 
The French people are in my prayers.
(I really do know what is important but there is only so much I can change.)

Katie
P.S. If I am wrong about this let me know. 


9 comments :

  1. Hey Katie, have you switched over to the "Business" option for your Pinterest account? I noticed awhile back that some of the features that I was used to seeing were missing. maybe that's the answer. recently I added a Pinterest collage on my sidebar that shows my latest pins; that connects me directly to Pinterest. That has brought me more followers and then in turn I get more clicks back to my blog from Pinteret. Pinterest is my highest ranking referral site by far. I know what you're saying about professional pics on Pinterest. It's hard to compete with bhg, HGTV, and the rest. I always enjoy your posts and photos. I've been blogging over 5 years and have had highs and lows, hang in there, you have lot's of dedicated followers! xoxo

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    1. Okay I just did that. My page doesn't look like it did the other day but I think I can get the information now.
      Thank you, Debra. Blogging can be fabulous and frustrating all at the same time. :)

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  2. Katie, I remembered a post I read awhile ago that tells you how to check what's been pinned from your blog, so I looked again and found the post for you. It's not as easy to check as it's been in the past, but at least you can still see what's been pinned. Here's the link:

    http://diy-diaries.blogspot.com/2011/08/how-to-tell-if-youve-been-pinned.html

    I hope it helps! The funny thing about Pins is that the ones that bring me the most traffic are the same old photos from years ago that I'm tired of seeing. As with all computer related issues, just when I thought I had Pinterest all figured out, they went and changed it all!

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    1. Thank you, Vickie. Maybe I did an update of some kind. I've transferred to a business account. I'll see if that helps.

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  3. Katie, I feel your frustration. I'm a small blog with no ads, just having fun and connecting with some great bloggers. If I were ranting (and I know I'll be hated for this) I would rant about some great blogs that have added so many advertisements that you can hardly get their blog to change pages or even appear. One of my favorite "cottage" blogs I finally deleted from my bloglist today. It was just too frustrating. I hope bloggers will keep in mind that advertising is understandable, but when it takes over a blog, it goes too far.

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    1. I know what you are talking about. I'm not sure that they realize how slow they load with all the ads. I've quit visiting a couple of my old favorites.

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    2. Oh my yes!!!! and the truncated blogs that take FOREVER to load, and then you can't read anything without RELOADING EVERY post. I have just about quit reading any of those...I would wasted the entire day........................W.A.I.T.I.N.G
      You girls are great!!
      Thanks for letting me help rant!
      Blessings to both of you,
      J

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  4. Katie: please read this post from last October that Susie Harris did. I think it is pertinent to your frustration and may help.
    http://www.susieharrisblog.com/2014/10/bringing-blogging-back.html

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  5. I so can understand your frustration, because I feel the same way! It's seems in many ways that blogging has become all about big business. I think of big blogs as the 1% of the blog world. Everything keeps changing, facebook, pinterest etc. At my age I just don't learn that quick anymore? I don't know if I've switched to "business" and will have to look into it! Never worry, there's plenty out there who can relate. There's more small blogs than large ones! I also stopped visiting blogs who have so many pop up everywhere. for then it's about a business for me it's about friendships!

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